Sara Brumfield
415 Portola Plaza
378 Humanities Building
Los Angeles, CA 90025
A native Texan, raised in New Hampshire, Sara Brumfield now resides in sunny Los Angeles where she is a doctoral student in Assyriology under Dr. Robert K. Englund. Her research focuses on the Mesopotamian periphery (Syria, Diyala) in the third millennium and the interactions between its burgeoning Semitic populations and the Sumerian heartland.
Education
Ph.D., Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, University of California-Los Angeles, 2009-current
M.A., Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, University of California-Los Angeles, 2006-2009
B.A., Linguistics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 2000-2004
Languages
Primary Languages: Akkadian Sumerian
Secondary Languages: Eblaite, Biblical Hebrew, Ugaritic, Hittite
Reading knowledge: German
Experience
Graduate Student Researcher
Graduate Research Mentorship Program
Project: "Gelb's Kish Civilization Revisited: Diagnostic Cultural Traditions of the Early Dynastic Period Among Semitic Language Communities"
Mentor, Dr. Robert K. Englund
Fall 2009-2010
Reader
ANE 185D: Religions of the Ancient Near East
UCLA
Fall 2009
Graduate Student Researcher
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program
Project: "Analysis and Publication of the Largest Unpublished Collection of Ur III Tablets on the West Coast"
Mentors, Dr. Robert K. Englund, UCLA and Dr. Lynn Schwarz Dodd, USC
Summer 2009
Graduate Student Researcher
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, UCLA & Institute of Museum and Library Services
"Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Second Generation"
Project: Digital archive construction, implementation, management and content creation
Winter-Spring 2009; Winter-Spring 2008
Instructor
SEM 140A: Elementary Akkadian
UCLA
Fall 2008
Research Fellow
Center for Primary Research and Training
Dept. of Special Collections, Young Research Library, UCLA
Project: Digitization, translation and archiving of a cuneiform tablet collection
Summer 2008
Contributor
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Wikipedia
Summer 2007-Summer 2008
Teaching Assistant
NR EAST 50A: First Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
UCLA
Fall 2007
Research Intern
San Diego Archaeological Center, Escondido CA
Project: "Archaeological differentiation of Luiseno and Diegueno linguistic groups in Southern California"
January 2006-June 2006
Awards
Graduate Research Mentorship, Fall 2009-Spring 2010
Graduate Research Mentorship, Summer 2009
Presentations
Featured Participant
Documentary: The Center for Primary Research and Training
UCLA Dept. of Special Collection's Center for Primary Research and Training
April 2009
Guest Lecturer
"The Origins of Writing in Mesopotamia"
Near Eastern Studies 50A: Introduction to Ancient Civilizations
November 20, 2008
Guest Lecturer
"Early Information Systems in Mesopotamia"
Information Studies 180: Information Ecology
October 29, 2008
Presenter
"Rare and Special Bytes: Special Collections in the Digital Age"
The 49th Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Pre-conference
UCLA Dept. of Special Collection's Center for Primary Research and Training
June 24, 2008
Leadership
Representative, Graduate Student Association Humanities Council, April 2009-current
Affiliations
American Oriental Society
The British Institute for the Study of Iraq
Cuneiform Digital Library Iniative